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"Пить таблетки" (literally "drink pills") is a commonly used phrase. But why is it "пить" ("drink")? Naturally, pills are solid and thus can't be "drunk" in a traditional sense. There is phrase "есть таблетки" ("eat pills"), but it's more of a slang.
My best guess is that the phrase came from the time when most if not all medicine was in liquid form: sirups, infusions, etc. - but I'd like somebody with a better knowledge to confirm/deny it.
Because you have to chase the pills down with water. Eating would also suggest chewing the pills rather than swallowing them. You can also say глотать таблетки (swallow pills), but it implies that there are quite a few pills being taken. Another way to say it is принимать лекарства (take medicines), but it is not specific to pills; принимать таблетки seems slightly weird colloquially, but is often used in instructions that come with pills.
In addition to the reasons given by @kotekzot, пить лекарства (literally "to drink medicine") is often used to mean "to take medicine". This does seem to suggest that medicine was typically liquid and that the word пить was transferred to pills, since you have to wash them down with water anyway.
"Пить таблетки" имеет общий смысл "пить лекарства", и поэтому русскоговорящие употребляют глагол "пить" со всем, что относится к понятию лекарства, которые принимают во внутрь через рот:
Пить порошки, пить микстуру, пить таблетки
"Drink pill" has a general sense of "take medicine" and is used in Russian with any drugs taken orally.
Помимо таблеток есть еще порошки, и их тоже "пьют". Это обусловлено тем, что тврдые лекарства традиционно запивают (washing down?) водой, а воду "пьют". Drink your medicine, and be happy.
"Принимать таблетки (или другие лекарства)" is completely standard and acceptable in all varieties of speech and writing. "Пить таблетки" is colloquial, it is not normally used in writing. "Глотать" usually refers to the process of swallowing. Sometimes, in colloquial speech, it means "to eat or drink something in too large amounts", e.g. pills. I've never heard anybody saying "есть таблетки".
You can use both. But russians prefer speak "пить таблетки" because pills are hard to swallow without liquid. And you always drink it. if you say you "съели таблетку" (ate a pill) you can be misunderstood and your companion may think that you are an addict. eat a pill that is also "used ecstasy".
The separation between "есть" ("eat") и "пить" ("drink") is not expected to follow the rules of simplistic formal logic as in "solids are eaten, liquids are drunk". Russian is not the only language to which it applies.
For example, in Russian language most people will prefer to use the verb "to drink" when referring to consumption of milk and liquid milk-derived products. However, in many regional dialects of Russian language the preferred (or even exclusively used) verb is actually "to eat", as in "есть молоко" или "есть кефир".
The same could be true for medical drugs. There's no formal logic in the verb "to drink" being commonly used in this case. It is quite possible that this usage was inherited from the times when drugs were mostly prepared in liquid form.
薬を飲む。) – Philip Seyfi Jun 28 '12 at 8:32